Google has made it official. The next Made by Google event lands August 12th in New York where the company will unveil its new Pixel 11 series, just weeks after the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 lands.
What Google hasn’t confirmed is price, but a new retail leak points to Google doubling the base storage across the Pixel 11 lineup to 256GB, alongside a genuine price increase.
Pixel 11 Price: Google Is Doing Exactly What Samsung Did
Samsung made a similar move with the Galaxy S26 launch earlier this year. The Korean company removed the 128GB option entirely, which essentially raised the entry price by $100 compared to the Galaxy S25. The Galaxy S26 Plus also saw a $100 increase, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra stayed flat at $1,299.
Dealabs, which is a French deals site with a strong track record on early phone pricing news, reported that the base Pixel 11 starts at €999 for 256GB in Europe, which is up from €899 for the 128GB Pixel 10.
The Pixel 11 Pro 128GB option is also gone, so it now starts at €1199, compared to the Pixel 10 pro’s €1,099 for the 128GB model. The Pixel 11 Pro XL and Pro Fold are also up €100 across every storage tier compared to their predecessors. There’s no information on U.S. pricing yet.
It’s worth noting that if you compare like-for-like 256GB versions for the base and Pro pixel phones, there’s no price change between last year’s phone and the new Pixel 11 devices. It’s just that you lose out on an ultra-cheap 128GB option.
For the Pixel 11 Pro XL and Pixel 11 Pro Fold, there is a straight €100 hike. Also, Google held prices flat from the Pixel 9 to Pixel 10, so some increase was always coming.
This is a similar storage jump, with a similar price direction, as the Galaxy S26. A Samsung exec told me at the launch earlier this year that the price increases were justified because of new features, specifically the privacy display. And to be fair to Samsung, it’s a legitimately impressive new tool that I use regularly.
How will Google justify the price increase outside of pointing to the mess that is the RAM crisis? The standout rumoured new feature, Pixel Glow, is an ambient notification light, which doesn’t sound as revolutionary as Samsung’s privacy display.
I don’t doubt that Google will have something up its sleeve to offset any grumblings about higher prices for the Pixel 11 series. Whether that’s new hardware with some level of wow-factor, or revealing new agentic abilities in Gemini Intelligence, is anyone’s guess.
The last hardware invention from Google, which also remains my favourite, was its 3D Face Unlock that rivalled Apple’s Face ID. That was unceremoniously ditched after the release of the Google Pixel 5. If Google brought that back then I could stomach a $100 price increase.
Why Waiting To Buy The Pixel 11 Will Pay Off
In any case, if you plan to buy the Pixel 11, you should hold your money for at least six weeks because Google is always running a sale. It’s running one right now that knocks hundreds off the Pixel 10 range. It’s actually easier to count the months when Google doesn’t have a promotion on.
How can it do this in the midst of price increases? It comes down to what a Pixel actually is to Google’s business.
Unlike Samsung, Google’s hardware isn’t its sole cash cow. It’s a distribution channel for Gemini, Google One and Google’s broader software ecosystem, which it charges subscriptions for and collects your data from. That gives Google far more room to discount than manufacturers who need each handset sale to be profitable on its own.
Almost every Pixel released has proven this. Discounts arrive within weeks of launch and only get deeper as the months go on. If the Pixel 11 does land at a higher price with only modest upgrades, the smart move for most buyers is the same one that’s worked for the last several Pixel generations: wait.
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